Ample Compensation
by Gul Bricett
Summary: When Hermione is re-united with her parents, there's a huge surprise; but after that, all is well again - she thinks.   Written for the "At the close" ficathon on LJ. Hermione & The Grangers, post-DH.


**Disclaimer:** Do I look like a multimillionaire to you? Thought so – that's because Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling, and not me.

This story was originally written for "At the Close: A Harry Potter Wars Comment Ficathon" on LJ (where I go by **sehlat_charmer**) to fill this

**prompt **by **chipping:**

"women of the war (hermione, luna, ginny, etc., etc.) - any time - _someday my pain will mark you "_

**Era:** post-DH to post-Epilogue. Canon-compliant.

**Characters: **Hermione & The Grangers. Gen.

**Rated** K+, but it's quite angsty.

* * *

><p><strong>Ample Compensation<strong>

When Hermione, finally, is permitted to re-unite with her memory-restored parents, there's a huge surprise: she has a baby brother now – Wendell, almost 19 years her younger.

Dad sits her down with a glass of Scotch and explains: how they liked it very much in Australia, those first months. But then, Mum started talking about how she missed having children; that it was _**wrong**_ they never had any – and then she stopped talking, just sat around, looking sad.

And Dad thought they had made _**a mistake**_, too, so he convinced Mum to get an appointment with a fertility clinic. Both of them being in their early Forties, they were told the odds were slim, but not nil – but the very first try was successful. "Like magic, the doctor said", Dad says with a lopsided grin and drains his glass. 

Mum and Dad choose to return to Australia and open a practice there. Again, they're living under their real names; even Wendell has a correct birth certificate, without "Junior", now.

A remarkable amount of nifty spell work, altering memories and records, must have gone into this, Hermione realizes. It's amazing what the Ministry will do for you if your daughter is a War Hero – or if their conscience isn't clean: Arthur has confidentially told her he found some circumstantial evidence there was indeed a hit squad led by Yaxley searching for her parents, all the time. Seems they've been in the old house more than once.

Oddly enough, what Hermione feels after hearing this is mostly relief.

Her parents forgive her.

Sure, sometimes there are _**awkward moments**_, but those are few and far between. Once, Hermione finds the copy of the Good Biography of Harry Mum had asked for on the floor of the sitting room. It looks like the book was thrown against the wall with great force. It's opened at the chapter about Lily and her sacrifice. Mum excuses herself early that evening.

Still, Wendell is a cute baby with lots of little curls and grows into a good kid.

The boy is obviously all-Muggle, and Hermione feels this is how it should be, a kind of compensation for her parents: her brother will be all theirs, always - and she loves him even more for it.

He calls her "Auntie", which is fine, really, considering the difference in age. As it turns out when she has Rose and Hugo, looking after Baby Wendell was good, low-pressure training. 

Thanks to that wonderful Muggle invention, e-mails, they're always in touch – owl relay post takes forever, plus the vultures of the Zagros Mountains are fierce -, and there are regular visits: New Year's Eve on the beach never gets old for Hugo and Rose; and the picture of Wendell seeing his first snow is the cutest Hermione has ever seen.

As Wendell grows older and more observant, they do, entirely of their own accord, what – as Hermione finds out only later – most Wizard families with extended Muggle kin (like nephews, cousins, and sisters-in-law's partners) do: they refrain from using magic in front of their guests and do Muggle things in the Muggle world together.

Hermione doesn't mind: when her parents come to London, it's kind of a little exotic vacation for her, too, with Muggle shopping with Mum, going to the Zoo with her brother or the theatre with her parents.

The Burrow is taboo, but that is bearable for a week or two – and frankly, as much as she loves her in-laws, they can be... taxing sometimes, especially in bigger numbers - , and Arthur and Molly, who get along great with her parents, use to drop by at least once, in the evening when the children are asleep. 

When Wendell starts primary school and later goes to a boarding school, meeting with her parents in person becomes a bit harder, what with the different school holidays, but once a year, they manage. And now Hermione gets drawings, and then postcards and funny little letters from her brother. And there is no _**awkwardness**_ any more.

In short: all is well. 

Until that Ministry party that everybody expected to be deadly dull, but turned out to be fun: Hermione ends up with a group of co-workers she normally hasn't much contact with, and they engage in a bit of inter-departmental banter, light-hearted and in good fun.

She just thinks it has been entirely too long since she's had a good laugh like this, when this guy (Barnabas? Bartleby? She can't remember) from Foreign Affairs starts mocking her for not being patriotic enough – _**because a wizard as promising as Wendell Granger should attend Hogwarts, not Woollongong Academy. **_

Her wine glass shatters in her hand, shards cutting her palm, but she neither hears nor feels it as her world crumbles around her.


End file.
